


Rain Delay

by Wonderlandleighleigh



Series: Just This Once, Everybody Lives [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 14:07:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18896152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wonderlandleighleigh/pseuds/Wonderlandleighleigh
Summary: Just because it rains, doesn't mean it's ruined.





	Rain Delay

He sits on the front porch, and watches the rain fall over the lake, the patter of water steadily hitting water all around him as he drinks his coffee. 

Tony had hoped for better weather today, but it’s hard to complain. After all, he survived the snap. Asking for more than that feels like a dick move. 

He’s good at those, but he’s picking and choosing his battles. 

Which he will not be fighting anymore. 

Sure, maybe the occasional conference room battle if Pepper needs backup with some of the stodgy old members of the Stark Industries board, but no more Iron Man battles. No more being punched in the face. No more nearly dying in space. 

They spend some weekends at the lake house now that Pepper is back to work (though possibly not for long. They’ve been discussing another baby, and all signs are pointing to “probably”). He’s dadding super hard now. He makes Morgan lunches and plays teacher. She’ll be starting preschool soon, and that’s...that’s a lot for Tony to handle but Morgan’s ready.

She’s perfect, actually.

Today, on the lake, however, is a little chilly, and rainy, and not at all good cookout weather. 

But the house is plenty big enough for everybody, so Tony’s not stressing. 

Thin arms wrap around his neck, and he smells Pepper’s shampoo and grins. 

“So no cookout today,” he says lightly. “We’ll have to figure out inside food.” 

“Looks like it,” she says, kissing his temple. “How are you feeling?” 

“Not bad,” Tony shrugs. “Stump still aches, but I’m getting used to things. And hey, I did the dishes without breaking any last night, so that’s a plus.” 

Pepper laughs softly in his ear. “You break less dishes with the new arm than you did with your original.” 

“I resemble that remark,” Tony quips. “Jarvis never let me do dishes as a kid, you know? He always insisted on doing everything.” 

Her arms tighten around him. “When is everybody supposed to show up?” 

“Early afternoon,” Tony tells her. “Happy will get here first, because he always gets here first, and then the kids will be late. Rhodey will show up last just to make me crazy.”

“He only makes you crazy because he loves you,” Pepper tells him. “And out of revenge.” 

“He’d call it justice.” 

“Go shower.” 

“Yep.” 

***** 

Tony is right. Happy gets to the lake first, pulling up and dashing through the rain with a bunch of grocery bags gripped in his hands. 

“You okay?” Pepper asks, grinning at him and helping him with the bags. “What is all this food? We didn’t need all this.” 

“It’s raining, we can’t grill,” Happy shrugs. “I stopped by Katz’s and got deli fixings and pie.” 

“Happy…” 

“Did you have a better plan?” he asks, looking expectant. 

Pepper blows out a breath and crosses her arms. 

“Hey!” Tony says as he hops down the stairs with Morgan riding on his back. “You brought food. Thanks, Happy.” 

“No problem,” Happy nods. “Kids here yet?” 

“They’ll be late,” Tony tells him. “Pep’s got the fireplace goin, go warm up, we’ll get the food set up.” 

Happy stands, a little frozen and looks from Pepper to Tony and back again. 

“Jesus,” Tony grumbles. “Go, Happy.” 

And he does, still a little stunned at not doing all the work.

“Your Uncle Happy is a weirdo, Morgoona,” Tony comments, making the little girl giggle. “Don’t ever forget how weird he is.” 

“Okay, Daddy.” 

“Okay.” 

***** 

Peter Parker dashes inside without knocking, shivering.

“It wasn’t raining in the city,” he says quickly. “It was sunny in the city and it was kinda hot and it wasn’t raining so I wore a t-shirt and took the train up here and then the bus to here here, and I regret it like a lot.” 

For his trouble, someone throws a towel in his face. 

“...Thank you.” 

***** 

Harley Keener does knock, right after settling his motorcycle helmet down on the wood floor of the front porch and shoving blonde hair from his face. 

The door swings open, and Tony beams back at him. “Kid.” 

“I’m twenty-one,” Harley rolls his eyes before being pulled in for a hug. 

“Which is still practically a baby,” Tony tells him. “So? How are you? How’s school? How’s your mom and sister?” 

Harley grins widely. He can’t help it, as he lets himself be pulled into the house and out of the rain. 

“Forget that, tell me everything about this crazy iron man arm,” Harley snaps, flicking the red and gold appendage wrapped around his shoulders. 

Tony grins at him fondly. “Food first. Then shop talk.” 

***** 

Rohdey is, in fact, the last to show up. When he steps inside the house, he finds everybody in the living room, eating in front of the fire. Tony and Pepper curled up on the couch, and Happy on the other end of it. Peter is sprawled out on the floor in front of them, his sandwich on the coffee table, while closer to the fire, Harley is sitting with Morgan between is spread legs, braiding her hair. 

Tony cranes his neck and gives Rhodey a smirk. “Late.” 

“I was busy,” Rhodey snaps. “We’re still trying to get this new Avengers team up and running.” 

“Who’s the snag?” Tony asks. 

“Wanda,” Rhodey sighs as he heads for the kitchen to fix himself a sandwich. “She’ can’t decide whether she wants to retire or not.” 

“She’ll figure it out,” Tony promises. “Though...I’ve been thinking…” 

“You said no shop talk til after food,” Pepper points out. 

“During-food shop talk is now instated,” Tony says quickly. “I saved the universe, I can do what I want.” 

Harley snorts. “Not a great sentence to say to your wife.” 

“Hush, or no cookies for you,” Tony says, pointing at him, before turning back to Rhodey as the other man walks over and pulls up a chair to sit by the couch. “I’ve been thinking about some things.” 

“Like?” 

“The next generation,” Tony says. “Avengers-wise, we’re six semi-retired, and six in play. What about a training team?” 

Rhodey blinks and looks from Tony to the two boys on the floor, and smirks. 

“What?” Peter asks with a full mouth. “What’s that look for?” 

“Between these two knuckleheads, the super-genius Princess of Wakanda, and Cassie Lang, we might have the bones for something really good,” Tony says, ignoring Peter. “And we’ll do it official. I swear. Run it by Fury, get everything official, just like you like.” 

Rohdey rolls his eyes and shakes his head, before turning to the boys. “What do you two think? Junior Avengers?” 

“Oh. I thought I was an Avenger-Avenger,” Peter says quietly. “Am I not an Avenger-Avenger?” 

“You are,” Pepper reassures him. “But you’re also a kid. And Avenger-Avengers tend to do some really dumb things sometimes like end the world with a robot, or punch each other without having a conversation about their feelings first. So a little training maybe wouldn’t be such a bad thing.” 

Tony blinks at her, but says nothing.

“I’m in,” Harley shrugs. “I just finished up at MIT and it was boring as hell. This sounds like a challenge.” 

Tony clears his throat, and stops staring at Pepper, turning to the boys. “Well, Pete’s already got a suit, though we’ll work on some variants for different scenarios...Harley, I’ve got some ideas.” 

“Workshop?” Rhodey asks, as he takes a big bite of his sandwich. 

Tony nods, kissing Pepper’s cheek and getting to his feet. “Workshop.”


End file.
